Saturday, June 06, 2009

Transplant: Mixed feeling

Finally got the car 2 weeks ago and it has been on the road since, generally the car was good on the road, the air cond was not cold initially when it was out from garage but it has been fixed few days ago due to a faulty compressor.

Initial results shows good, no temperature increase when stucked in long traffic jam (except the failing aircond earlier), no leakages on the undercarriage, no knocking sound, reach 180kmh smoothly with no flat zone, minimum turbo lag even on front mount intercooler, moderate fuel consumption (RM60 for 350 km city driving) and no wiring faults.

One thing funny about the car is its fast on straight, but slow on corners. The way you decelerate and accelerate no longer apply when you drive a NA compared to a turbocharged car. This is one thing I guess I will not figure out until some months later on the road and its pretty frustrating to wait for the turbine to spool your way our from the exit corner... I used to think that with such a forced induction engine, everything is going to be fast, but this is virtually not the case. With boost on 0.9 bar max, the car is pretty fun when on the federal road but not so fun on, say Tanjung Bungah hill road...

I missed the feeling of driving the Deto at 5th gear and you still can overtake a car while youo yourself going at 60kmh. I missed the feeling of instant torque whenever you want it on my old Deto. I also missed the feeling of the LSD gear when taking corner with the Deto, knowing quite well that upon exiting the corner, you already on your power band and its linear acceleration. Now only I realize my driving skill sucks because I relied too much on the old engine's torque to drive regardless of the correct gear to use... but anyway I guess life was not meant to be that simple.

Well, for what's worth, going to Genting or Cameron or city driving would be much fun with this 4E engine, but certainly the scary feeling of driving this 4E will always be there, one will never know when the turbo is going to kick in when you are going through a corner, and if it kicks in right at the apex with a pool of water, that might not be a good way to die.

Until I can find a way to fix the way I drive during corner and change my driving style when handling gear, I don't think I will say this engine is good for me.

On a lighter note, I will be needing to change my botak tyres soon, the Yokohama Advan Neova had finally run to a near 10% tread and definately not road safe during rain. Another dilema is whatever tyre I choose, it will never be as good as the AD07 because I can't afford semi slicks anymore, and that's probably whats made it even more frustrating. Regardless, safety is still a priority..

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